"In a vibrant democracy, the voter must be given an opportunity to
choose ‘None of the Above’ button, which will indeed compel the political
parties to nominate a sound candidate. This situation palpably tells us the
dire need of negative voting" observed the Supreme Court of India on
September 27 while deciding about providing the ‘NOTA’ option to voters across
India. This judgment moves one step ahead in recognizing the democratic
rights of individual voters for choosing none of the candidates in election
fray.

Notwithstanding the NOTA option,
any candidate who receives the highest number of votes would be declared
elected. That would effectively mean even in a situation where the number of
votes polled for NOTA may be in majority, still the candidate securing the
largest number of votes other than NOTA will be declared the winner. Even while
NOTA would be befit of any teeth to bite, it still could change the way political
parties field candidates, fearing embarrassment of rejection from voters.

Not strangely however, political
parties in Kashmir have been spooked by the applicability of NOTA here. While
NOTA was aimed to strengthen democracy in mainland India, in Kashmir this
option is seen by Pro Delhi parties as a window for their mass rejection by
voters.Had democracy been allowed to
flourish by New Delhi and their representatives in Kashmir, the scare of NOTA exposing
their real democratic ‘strength’ on ground would not have forced them to speak
against its implementation.

The farce of democracy in Kashmir
started with forced unilateral ‘contests’; in the first election to the J&K
Legislative Assembly held on 15 October 1951 National Conference lead by Sheikh
Abdullah was declared to have ‘won’ 73 of the 75 seats unopposed (nominations
for all opposition candidates were rejected). This process continued so
brazenly that soon after the 1962 elections, Indian P.M Nehru wrote to Bakshi
(then P.M of Kashmir) “In fact, it would strengthen your position much more
if you lost a few seats to bona fide opponents”. In later years the farce
of 1987 elections is vividly remembered in Kashmir where NC with the support of
New Delhi openly mass rigged elections, followed by torture of political
opponents. This was an ignition for the rise of militancy in Kashmir.

During the 1996 elections people alleged that
Indian armed troops coerced them into voting, to show a turnout yet even then
the turnout was not more than 10% across Kashmir. Most elections rode on poll
boycott, political parties coming to power from pockets where maximum poll
boycott took place. And it is this disenchanted majority in Kashmir that might
like to use NOTA, making it difficult for political forces to use proxy votes
of electorate who otherwise would not vote. If denying democratic rights to Kashmir was
not enough, India has also been covertly playing with electoral demographics in
the state. In 1989 Kashmir had almost 10% more voters than Jammu yet within a
decade this trend was reversed. As Dr
Hasseb Drabu (Greater Kashmir Sept 26th) pointed “The population of Jammu region as per the
2001 census was 43.9 lakh while that of Kashmir was 54.4 lakh; that is, 20 per
cent lower. Yet Jammu had 28.7 lakh voters while Kashmir has only 25.5 lakh
voters. Despite lower population, the 37 constituencies of Jammu have 1.8 lakh
more voters than the 46 constituencies in Kashmir…….All this is a part of the
systemic and systematic disenfranchisement of the Kashmiris. Their weightage,
despite higher population, is declining in the electoral arena.”

Over decades this covert disfranchisement of
common people has been engineered for a ‘New Delhi controlled democracy’ in
Kashmir where they have been extending power lease of their political
representatives and NOTA would take away some wind from their proxy sails.
Hence the palpable fear on the faces of these parties here. Even for those of electorate
inKashmir who do turn out to vote, they
have always been in a dilemma of sorts ‘if
we vote, rigging will still happen’ to ‘let’s give voting a try for local
governance’, while still cherishing the idea of Azadi.

Ironically the same politicians who
never stop parroting “separatists
lack the mass support and people have defied boycott calls” are the ones
running for cover over NOTA. And when politicians, both from NC and CONgress
claim "The NOTA option
for voting would only strengthen the hands of separatists," they are
actually admitting that the separatist sentiment in Kashmir is not only alive
but in a majority and that the pro freedom camp holds considerable influence on
ground. Why would otherwise the CONgress treat democracy differently in India
mainland and in Kashmir?

The opposition to NOTA from these
political entities has not only exposed their hollow democratic foundations but
also once again exposed the denial of democracy by India in Kashmir. Either
ways NOTA is all set to pinch them; if NOTA is applied people will use this
tool to reject representatives of New Delhi and if NOTA is denied, it will give
the pro freedom camp (separatists) more proof to point at the denial of
democracy in Kashmir. This even while the pro freedom camp has rejected any
interest in NOTA.

Kashmir has always been treated
as ‘special case’ by New Delhi in ‘what
rights are good for other states are not good for Kashmir’ practice. Since
democracy in Kashmir has been reduced to a New Delhi nominated rule where power
lease is extended to proxies from time to time, should an easier adaptation of ‘occupational
democracy’ not be pushed here? How about New Delhi formally executing a
totalitarian regime here since the ‘two party contest with local taxes extra of
Army influenced side kicks’ in Kashmir has already been reduced to a pretending
election between opponents who then collaborate as coalition power grabbing partners.
A typical ‘herd them to elections, but
you decide who gets to win’ scenario.

Surely ‘NOTA’ will not usher any democracy in Kashmir, but
its mere implementation or refusal will again bare naked ‘The Emperors New
Clothes’.